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USF Academic Research & Teaching Facility

Providing architectural and laboratory programming, planning, and design services, RS&H led the design team for this two-story Academic Research and Teaching Facility, which houses classrooms, seminar spaces, research laboratories, and teaching laboratories for the University of South Florida’s (USF) College of Marine Sciences and College of Arts and Sciences. The goal of the facility was to expand USF’s multidisciplinary teaching and research activities. The team also incorporated sustainable design elements with the goal of achieving, at minimum, LEED Gold Certification.

As the first phase of the 60,000-square-foot Science and Technology complex, this facility maximizes research and teaching spaces within the confines of the main campus. One block off Tampa Bay and one block from the Albert Whitted Airport, the facility combines the best of coastal design with the efficiencies of tight height restrictions to provide USF with effective site and space planning.

The teaching component of the facility includes two 60-person classrooms and six 48-person classrooms. Teaching laboratories accommodate splayed wall demonstration laboratories that easily combine both lecture and working laboratory functions. The teaching laboratories include one earth science lab, one general chemistry lab, and two general biology laboratories.

Understanding USF’s strong pursuit of research dollars, the team designed new research spaces to be flexible and easily modified for any changes that may occur on a regular basis. Accordingly, the team designed “modular” laboratories on an 11-foot by 11-foot grid, which can be adapted to multiple types of research use, with only minor up-fit revisions required.

The research laboratories contain four laboratories for marine science, as well as four arts and sciences laboratories. Support spaces include a study lounge, common glass wash, laboratory storage, and laboratory equipment areas.